Kevin and Orville are flying high this Christmas

A Tameside Christmas song is aiming to raise money for the homeless charity Shelter this festive season.

It’s all thanks to Carrbrook’s Kevin Butler who decided to spread some much-needed festive cheer by releasing a Christmas single featuring the famous feathered star Orville the Duck.

The song was launched on Tameside Radio recently for the first time.

Kevin bought the feathered star on eBay ‘for a laugh’ and started making content for Facebook. 

But Kevin never expected his online fame to soar, with one of his posts reaching an audience of 4,000 people across five different counties.

His Christmas song, ‘Santa’s Team’, is set to be bigger still. With a catchy chorus, it encourages the people of the UK to get up and dance for a good cause, as all proceeds are going to be donated to the charity Shelter.

Recording the hit took five and a half hours at a studio in Oldham. It’s going to be released on iTunes and raised £2,500 in just two days.

To use Orville, Kevin also had to seek permission from the Keith Harris estate, and received a lovely letter from Harris’s daughter, thanking him for his fundraising effort.

Butler and Orville have since turned on the Carrbrook Christmas lights together.

Kevin said: “I’ve had people send me videos of their kids singing the song, and some won’t go to bed till they’ve sang it, so that’s just what I wanted.”

You can watch the music video, that features local Christmas lights and neighbourhood families dancing along, here...

To donate, go to the JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/santasteam